m 



STARCH. 



STATER. 



771 



flocks, and after washing may be used in the preparation of certain 

 varieties of food, at before mentioned. 



ntkrr Material* fir Short*. Mr. Simmonda states that at Oswego, in 

 New York State, starch is made on a rait wale from maize or Indi m 

 corn. There U one factory which coven nearly three acre*, and which 

 conmimc* 200,000 bushels of maice yearly, whence is obtained 4,000,000 

 Ibs. of starch. Mr. Andenon, by a patent obtained in 1857, proposes 

 to to treat main a* to obtain starch from one portion, and oil from it 

 residua hitherto wasted. Frequent search is mode for new materials 

 whence starch may be obtained. So far back as 1796, the Society of 

 Art* offend a prise medal for any novelties in thin direction. The 

 prize was awarded to Mrs. Qibbs of Portland, who obtained starch from 

 the roots of the A mm marulnlum 4 Ib. from 1 peck. It was very 

 pure, and was sold under the name of " Portland arrow-root." There 

 is not much now made, because the rotation of crops prevents the wild 

 arum from growing. In 1868, M. Bassot obtained a prize in France, 

 for making starch from the Pitlillaria imperial!*, or crown imperial; lie 

 washes ana rasps the bulbs, and obtains starch from them in the usual 

 way. The plant grows well in France. M. Bassot estimates that 

 5000 Ibs. of starch may come from an acre of land, and need not cost 

 more than 4*. per cwt much cheaper than potato starch. In 1857, 

 there was a great demand for horse-chestnuts in France, in consequence 

 of the establishment of a factory at Nanterrc for making starch from 

 that source. Chestnut trees are very abundant in France, and the 

 starch obtained from the fruit is said to be good. 



The use of starch in the cotton manufacturing districts is very 

 large. One print-work in Manchester consumed 6000 cwts. in 1859. 

 A kind called Glenfeld starch is, by a peculiar process, made semi- 

 transparent, for use in stiffening net and lace. 



Propertit* of Starch. Starch, when pure, is nearly devoid of odour 

 and taste, and is possessed of demulcent properties when boiled in 

 water, with which it forms a hydrate of a jelly-like character. Its 

 insipidity, however, hinders it from being very digestible in this state, 

 or even when kneaded with cold water, and exposed to heat, to form 

 biscuits. Its digestibility is greatly increased by fermentation, and 

 hence bread or rusks are much more suitable to invalids than any 

 unfermented preparations of flour. The best bread is formed by flour 

 which contains the greatest proportion of gluten. The relative pro- 

 pnrtions of starch and gluten differ not only in the different cereal 

 grains, but in the same species or variety, according to the season 

 when they are sown, or the manure which has been applied to the 

 land. 



Starch exists in larger proportion in Carolina rice than in any other 

 grain. Potatoes yield the purest starch. It is procured from them 

 with great ease, by simply rasping down the potatoes over a sieve, and 

 passing a current of water over the raspings. The water passes through 

 the sieve milky with the starch. By rest the starch subsides ; it is 

 then two or three times washed with pure water, and afterwards 

 allowed to dry. 



The quantity of starch is at its maximum in the winter months, but 

 as soon as the potato begins to sprout, the starch lessens, as does also 

 the proportion of nitrogen, so that its nutritive properties are impaired. 

 If, however , the process of isolating the starch be followed in the 

 winter months, the result is, a sixth portion of the weight of the 

 potatoes employed, in a condition fit not only for immediate use, but 

 of easy transport, and capable of preservation for yean. 



Starches differ, according to their sources, in chemical composition, 

 and certainly in their digestibility, as also in their nutritive properties, 

 according as they are isolated or associated with other principles, such 

 as gluten. Wheat-starch consists of C^H^O,,,, while potato-starch 

 consists of CuH.O,. Arrowroot has no gluten associated with it, rice 

 very little, potato only one-third what good wheat has. Thus while 

 arrowroot is the most digestible, wheat is the most nourishing. 

 Potatoes are neither nourishing nor digestible, being of all starches the 

 most prone to run into acidity, and so distress weak stomachs. The 

 consumers of rice and potatoes are remarked to be almost invariably 

 pot-bellied, owing to the large quantity they are compelled to use. " To 

 supply a given amount of carbon and nitrogen to the system it costs 

 two and a half times as much to obtain it from potato as from bread." 

 ( 1 >r. Kdward Smith.) These facts constitute a strong objection to the 

 use of potatoes, either in their natural state, as when used at dinner, 

 or when employed as a constituent of bread. Many persons have 

 found their health strikingly improved by relinquishing the use of 

 potatoes. It is difficult to detect the presence of potato-starch in 

 bread. The motive for using it is that it takes up more water than 

 wheat-flour. But this is a double disadvantage to the consumer, as 

 he gets less nutritious material for his money, and has unhealthy acid 

 generated in his stomach. The bread made with Hour very moist is 

 always inferior, from an alteration in the gluten, unfavourable to a 

 perfect panification, and because such bread is very much more prone 

 to become mouldy, by which iu degree of wholesomeness is still 

 farther impaired. (Dumas, ' Traito tie Chimie appliqurf aux Arts,' 

 vol. vi. p. 81.) 



The carefully devised and systematically conducted experiments 

 of Dr. Edward Smith prove that " animals cannot live on starch, and 

 yet it is not uncommon to find mothers with deficient milk giving 

 to their infanta arrowroot, or some of the fashionable preparations of 

 corn, which consist almost entirely of starch freed from the important 



nitrogenous constituents, and using water instead of cow's milk, 

 under the impression that the latter would be too rich a food. Such 

 a course can only be a source of starvation," and a fertile source of 

 mortality. (See ' Practical Deductions from an Experimental Inquiry 

 into the Influence of Foods," by Edward Smith, M.D., Dublin, 1860.) 



The above are the more important kinds of starch. For information 

 concerning starch from other sources see the names of the several 

 plants in the NATURAL HISTOIIY DIVISION of this Cyclopaedia. [Anitow- 

 BOOT; SAGO; SALF.F; TAPIOCA.! 



STARCH OUM. [BRITISH GUM.] 



STARS, DOl'BI.K. [STAB, &c.] 



STARS, SHOOTING. [METEOR.] 



STATE. [SOVEKKKINTV.] 



STATER (irrartip, a itandard of value), or Chryna (xfvaous, <j'Jd 

 money), was the name of a Greek gold coin, which, after being used 

 from a very early period in some states, became, in the time of 

 Philip II. and Alexander the Great, the general gold cum i 

 Greece. It is said to have been first coined in Lydia, to v. hi.-h th<< 

 origin of silver money also is attributed by an ancient tradition. 

 (Herod, i. 94.) The stater of Cronus seems to have been the first 

 gold money seen in Greece. (Herod, i. 54.) No undoubted specimen 

 of this Lydian stater is in existence. According to Bttckh, it was 

 formed of the pale gold or electrum ({ gold and I silver) contained in 

 the sands of the Pactolus. 



Of the better known gold coins, most were of the some standard of 

 weight as the Attic drachma, the Attic silver having at a very early 

 period obtained a general circulation throughout Greece, and living 

 reckoned extremely pure. The stater was generally equal in weight to 

 two drachmas, and in value to twenty. This was the case with the 

 Macedonian stater, which the influence of Philip and Alexander brought 

 into general circulation in Greece, and which continued to be coined 

 by the later Macedonian kings after the same standard, or very nearly 

 so. Many specimens of it exist. 



The average weight of the staters of Philip and Alexander is a little 

 under 133 grains. An assay of a stater of Alexander, made t 

 HuBsey, gave 115 grains of fine gold and 18 of silver, with no alloy. 

 The silver here ought not to be reckoned as an alloy, and therefore the 

 coin is equivalent to 133 grains of fine gold. Our sovereign contains 



113'12 grains of fine gold. Therefore this stater was worth j^jj of a 



sovereign, or a very little more than 11. 3s. 6d. If we calculate its 

 value by the number of drachma! it was worth, we find it only 16*. 3d. 

 The reason of this is, that silver was much dearer in ancient times than 

 it is now. The higher value of the stater is the true one, as no material 

 change has occurred in the value of gold. 



In the states of Greece proper the chief standards of money followed 

 were those of Athens and ^Egina. In both, the principal denomina- 

 tions of money were coined in silver, and it does not appear that the 

 /Kginetan system contained any gold coin. 



At Athens there seems to have been no gold money in the flourishing 

 times of the republic, if we except a coinage mentioned by the Sel 

 to Aristophanes (' Frogs,' v. 719). There are however a few Attic gold 

 coins in existence, but only about a dozen. Of these, three, whirh 

 there U every reason to suppose genuine, are in the British Museum, 

 and one in the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow. Their weights agree 

 exactly with the Attic standard, being respectively 13'J'3, 1 

 and 13275 grains, or on the average 182'6875 grains, which is only 

 about half a grain less than the Attic didrnchm. The character of the 

 impression is exactly like that of the old Attic silver, but the form of 

 the coin is more like the Macedonian. 



It is very clear however that foreign gold was in circulation .it 

 Athens quite as early as the Pelopounesiaii war. It was ol" 

 doubtless in commerce, and as the tribute of the allies, tunny of whom 

 had gold currencies. Among the denominations so used, the ehii f 

 were the darics of Persia [!)AHIC] and the staters of the Ore. i, 

 of Asia and the neighbouring islands. In fact, the Greeks got nearly 

 all their gold from Asia. The following were the principal coins of 

 Greek states in circulation .it Athens : 



Demosthenes (in ' Phorm.,' p. 914, Reiske) informs us that a little 

 after 835 B.C. the stater of Cyidcus passed at Bosporus in the T.-mi -ic 

 Chersonese for twenty-eight Attic drachma;. The existing coins vary 

 from 160 to 1*20 grains, the former of which is greater, the latter lew 

 than the Attic, and both apparently derived from an element of 40 

 grains. The existing coins seem however to have been multiples of 

 different standards. As the heaviest of the existing coins does not 

 come up to the weight answering to the value assigned to the Cy 

 stater by Demosthenes, we must suppose that gold was dearer or silver 

 cheaper than usual at Bosporus at the time referred to. 



The Stater* of Lampiarut, which may be recognised by the impres- 

 sion of a sea-horse, are of the standard of the daric. Two in the Iti iti>h 

 Museum weigh about 129 grains each. 



The Stater of Ptioc<ra also appears, from the specimens given by 

 Sestini (' Degli Stateri Antichi '), to have followed the standard of the 

 daric. It was divided into sixths (liercu) and twelfths (^ufe/rrat, of 

 which the latter were equal in value to eight obols, and in v 

 probably to one, since the obol bore the same proportion to the 

 didrachm in the silver coinage, that the Tifitexrov did to the stater in 

 the gold. 



